Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

***NEW WEEKLY CHALLENGE!***

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: MANEX MONDAY

Our friends over at the ManeX Gaming Channel on YouTube put together an incredibly interesting Video Of The Week for us this time around: game commentary for a new player who’s only been on XBox and Halo for a short while. The MXG lads look at the things he does right, the things he does wrong, and a number of habits that you probably take for granted but might actually want to rethink yourself. Check it out!

The ManeX Monday feature provides clips not of specific Challenges, but of key tactics and techniques intended to help make you a better player across ALL your Challenges. Subscribe to the Channel to get notified of updates, or follow it on Twitter here. Thanks again, guys!

Our regular Screenshot Of The Day returns tomorrow. So if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

FIRE WHEN READY

The Ancient Aztecs were a great civilization. But they didn’t play Grifball, and they died. Don’t be an Aztec! Also, you’ll get the Fire When Ready Challenge really quickly, and tank through your Oops! All Kills and Credits For Completion Challenges (see below) at the same time. Yow! (Grifballin’ courtesy of SinisterSin.)

COOK ‘EM, CLEAN ‘EM!

This Challenge is why you’ll see so many people jetpacking through Multiplayer today. If you’re a seasoned jetpacker, you won’t need any advice from here; if you’re not, it’s still going to be easy as hell.

To earn the Firebird Medal — and thus notch a kill toward the Daily Challenge — you need only be airborne from the moment you fire your final shot to when the game registers the kill; you don’t have to actually jetpack the entire gunfight.

That means you can move and fight as usual, and simply hit the jetpack as you take your killshot. (Which, in fact, is precisely what we recommend — it’s dead simple, and you’ll hardly need change your fighting style at all.) In fact, you can even hover just an inch aboveground, with barely any daylight between the floor and your boots, for your Firebird Medal to register.

It’ll also register with melees, assassinations, and weapons like Hammers and Swords; and with those weapons, you’ll even lunge pretty much the same as if your feet still touched the ground. Again, just hit your jetpack an instant before you strike and the Challenge point will register.

It won’t register, however, if you’re not actively “thrusting” when you make your kill; finish your enemy off while only in freefall and you’ll score an ordinary kill, not a Challenge point. So make sure you’re thrusting when you, ah, unload.

Unless you’re an experienced jetpacker, avoid the larger, open maps (Powerhouse, Forge World) in favor of tighter, smaller ones (Sword Base, Zealot, Countdown), even if that sounds counter-intuitive. It’s real easy to get shot out of the sky if you don’t know what you’re doing, and a close-quarters map allows you to fight almost normally, jetpacking for a moment only as you close the deal.

Rumble Pit used to be your best bet for this Challenge, since basically you could fire at anything while boosting, but Dino Blasters in Action Sack has somehow made it even easier — spawning you with a jetpack as well as a Concussion Rifle with a bottomless clip. Yeah!

Grifball remains your best bet: You can score a Double-Kill with a single hammer swing, and all other things being equal you should register the Challenge just by happenstance. Not a fan of the orange dude with the bomb? Well, OK, you’re weird, but whatever:

Head instead into Rumble Pit or Multi-Team; more enemies on smaller maps = more multikills.

Vote for gametypes on tighter maps that encourage enemies to converge into single flashpoints: King Of The Hill and Oddball, for example. Spam grenades into the hotzone, followed by DMR or Magnum headshots and the occasional coup-de-grace melee rush. Avoid the area yourself, however; no sense adding your corpse to the fiesta.

If you’re not having much luck in the Pit, get a friend and head into Multi-Team; it’s like Rumble Pit With Partners, and your enemies usually travel in pairs or threes — almost as if they’re asking to all get killed together, yes? So, coordinate with your teammates: team-shoot one enemy, then whoever doesn’t score the final shot can melee or plasma-burst another, setting up the Multi-Kill.

Big Team Battle and Invasion also offer Multi-Kill opportunities: taking out a vehicle with passenger, or a pair of enemies in the unlock zone of an Invasion phase, seem like good bets. Your main problem, however, will be not your enemies but your allies — with so many players on each side, you’ll have considerable competition among your teammates to actually score those kills.

NOTE: The Challenge tracks your progress by keeping track of medals; that means a Double-Kill that stacks into a Triple and eventually an Overkill nets you three Challenge points, not just one. Pretty good, eh?

CREDITS FOR COMPLETION

Yes, you really can earn this by doing absolutely nothing for four games; it’s hard to call it a “Challenge” when the only requirement is that your controller doesn’t turn off. (And even then.) But, hey, it’s 1400 free cRedits, and you’ll probably pocket the games simply by handling the other Dailies and Weekly Challenge. So don’t complain, eh?

Scoring 1K kills in one week sounds like an insurmountable task for which there are no shortcuts, but only the second half of that is right. The number seems conquerable only by the truly skilled or truly crazed; but, with all week to run your counter up, it becomes implausible only if you leave it to the very end.

One thousand divides not-so-neatly into 143 kills per day — an eminently manageable number, considering you’ve already completed Daily Challenges that required you to register up to 150 names in the dead-book. Notching that once per day simply turns this into a fifth Daily Challenge, with the massive payoff for all seven days at the end of the week.

Also: Though we don’t know what they are yet, several upcoming Daily Challenges — like all of today’s Challenges — will likely require you to stack Multiplayer bodies, so you’ll work this one automatically as you wrap up the Dailies during the week.

Most importantly, however, don’t talk yourself out of this simply because it’s intimidating. With the Bungie-sized bonus at the end of the week, each kill will net you an additional 15 cRedits; considering that a standard kill only awards you 4 cR, you’ll be nearly quadrupling your cRedit reward for your next thousand kills — but only if you finish. You’re a Spartan, okay? “Impossible” is a word for ODSTs.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

***WEEKLY CHALLENGE LAST DAY!***

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: Pahute Mesa

Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of Pahute Mesa, who reminds us there’s nothing quite like a good explosion of Zombie blood on a fine Sunday morning. Thanks, Pahute! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

LIGHT FARE

You’ll score most of these automatically as part of completing your other Daily Challenges today. For leftovers, just head into ONI Sword Base or an anti-Grunt Custom Firefight game (see links at top of the page for both).

THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT. . .

Load up any Campaign level on Normal that offers a precision weapon plus lots o’ Grunts, and get to work.

ONI Sword Base features a DMR start and opens in the middle of a firefight, plus there’s a Sniper Rifle at the end of the base-side Terrace for pwning Elites once you’ve cleared the Jackals and Grunts. Winter Contingency at Rally Point Bravo literally drops you into a Fodder-O-Rama of a firefight; and though you enter with an Assault Rifle, a DMR conveniently awaits your weapon swap on the asphalt leading to the rear bunker, with more ammo for it just inside.

(Nightfall, of course, spawns you with a Sniper, but with 50 kills in front of you, it’s not going to wrap things as quickly; and do you really want Jun telling you to “do it quiet” again? Anyway, take yer pick.)

Concentrate on headshots against Grunts and Jackals, since those award extra Medal cR, and don’t waste DMR ammo on the Elites — you’ll run out of enemies before hitting the half-century mark and need to revert the Checkpoint anyway; so, unless you feel like sniping, you might as well reset as soon as you’ve cleaned slate on the lesser Covies.

If you run low on ammo, simply swipe Needle Rifles from the fallen Jackals; those register precision kills like a DMR, but heading into a bunker for a DMR reload can trigger a Checkpoint, meaning you’d have to settle for a full level restart.

KILLAGRUNTJARO!

Despite its name, Killagruntjaro doesn’t actually require you to Jaro anything, though we will be going with Gruntpocalypse in Score Attack to wrap this in one Round rather than three.

It shouldn’t be any problem to Magnum or DMR your way to seven Multikills, since the Grunts go down with one shot, travel in packs, and maneuver with the agility of highway roadside accident. So, if you can’t manage seven out of a single match, you’re just not trying.

We prefer Rumble Pit on smaller, tighter maps: Wherever you can sneak up on someone, catch them by surprise as they come ’round a corner or make a straight Sprint toward their unsuspecting spines will offer all sorts of banzai backstab openings.

Although you can Sprint for a cheetah-like takedown, you can stalk just as easily with Active Camo if you don’t mind alerting your prey to nearby danger, since Camo-crouched near a doorway or corner for a lightning strike will make the Discovery Channel highlight reel as well.

Though it often goes hand-in-glove with Rumble Pit recommendations, avoid Multi-Team for this one: There’s just too much damn gunfire everywhere, and you could easily find yourself Yoinked — or worse, Showstopped — as the Assassination animation plays.

Finally, an excellent point from reader MAL, who in real life makes his living as a professional assassin:

Choosing a ‘Pro’ game in Matchmaking Rumble Pit, like Crazy King Pro or Slayer Pro, makes this extremely simple. The lack of radar will make it easy to sneak up on opponents and get multiple assassinations.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: ENDEROFLEGEND

Screenshot Of The Day today in honor of new Ender Nation clan member ENDEROFLEGEND, rocking a flaming Gugnir helmet in outer space. Cool! Welcome to the Pillar Of Awesome,Legend! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

SHOOTIN’ AND LOOTIN’

Take this one on last; you’ll score at least some of these as part of completing your other Daily Challenges today. For leftovers, just head into ONI Sword Base or an Anti-Grunt Custom Firefight game (see links at top of the page for both).

Any Elite gametype will start you with Plasma Grenades, as will Invasion (Covie side) and Pro gametypes (Warden Loadout). But Plasmas are also scattered all over the maps, and respawn almost constantly, so if you prefer a different gametype/loadout you’ll still find with more than enough to spare.

Look for playlists that put you on smaller, tighter maps, where close-quarter combat virtually begs you stick opponents with impunity. Enemies with Armor Lock (AKA “Fuckin’ Armor-Locking Douchebags” — except, of course, when it’s you) will in turn frustrate you with impunity; so, vote for Pro gametypes — which don’t allow for Armor-Locking Douchebags — and especially King Of The Hill, where enemies cluster into spamworthy hot-zones that additionally disable Armor Abilities while inside.

Rumble Pit remains a top option, specifically because it offers a candy store of Elite, Pro and KotH gametypes, on exactly the type of maps that invite you to go stick-or-treating — and you only need to score one, yeah?

Invasion likewise represents a solid option, since even the open maps still encourage enemies to concentrate around the capture points, though when on the Spartan side you’ll need to scope for fallen Plasmas before being able to stick Covies crouched in the countdown zone. Just scan for dead Dinos after one of their attack rushes; you should find them everywhere.

FOURTH HORSEMAN

Multi-Kills, while typical, are often a question of circumstance. Getting the odds to align in your favor four times in one match can be tricky, but there’s a few things you can do to skitch them in your favor.

Grifball remains your best bet. You can score a Double-Kill with a single hammer swing, and all other things being equal you should register a saddlebag full of multikills before the game ends just by happenstance.

Not a fan of the orange dude with the bomb? Well, OK, you’re weird, but whatever. Head instead into Rumble Pit or Multi-Team; more enemies on smaller maps = more multikills.

Vote for gametypes on smaller, tighter maps that encourage enemies to converge into single flashpoints: King Of The Hill and Oddball, for example. Spam grenades into the hotzone, followed by DMR or Magnum headshots and the occasional coup-de-grace melee rush. Avoid the area yourself, however; no sense adding your corpse to the fiesta.

The Pit’s Juggernaut can be a mixed blessing: If you’ve got the Hammer, you’ll have an excellent opportunity to skullcrush your way to multiple Multi-Kills. If you’re not Jugs, you won’t be able to score any. Seek out power weapons like Rockets that can deal massive damage to the Juggernaut from a distance; and even without them, steer clear of close-combat and nickel-and-dime your target from range — if you’re lucky, you’ll score the last shot, and get a Hammer for your efforts.

If you’re not having much luck in the Pit, get a friend and head into Multi-Team; it’s like Rumble Pit With Partners, and your enemies usually travel in pairs or threes — almost as if they’re asking to all get killed together, yes? So, coordinate with your teammates: team-shoot one enemy, then whoever doesn’t score the final shot can melee or plasma-burst another, setting up the Multi-Kill.

Big Team Battle and Invasion also offer Multi-Kill opportunities: taking out a vehicle with passenger, or a pair of enemies in the unlock zone of an Invasion phase, seem like good bets. Your main problem, however, will be not your enemies but your allies — with so many players on each side, you’ll have considerable competition among your teammates to actually score those kills.

NOTE: The Challenge tracks your progress by keeping track of medals; that means a Double-Kill that stacks into a Triple and eventually an Overkill nets you three Challenge points, not just one. Pretty good, eh?

TAKE NOTE, however: Despite what it may say on your Reach game stats page over at Bungie.net, simply finishing in the top half of a Free-For-All game will NOT register as a win for your Challenge progress here — you’ll need to place First, or not at all.

Similarly, avoid any Objective gametypes that frequently end in a tie — Capture The Flag or Assault, for example — since although your game score registers a win for both sides (that is, you both came in “first”), the Daily Challenge is not so generous; either one team takes the top spot, or both sides lose.

Avoid Big Team Battle and Invasion; though generally worth more cRedits, they also take longer, and you’re targeting wins here, not just cR. Plus, you can spend twice as much time in a Big Team game and still have a 50% chance of finishing without any Challenge progress; two smaller-squad games will earn just as many credits in the same time, but double your chances at a win.

Remember when I said to avoid Objective games? Well, just as it does with most things, Grifball breaks the rules. Games are usually quick and generally won’t end in a tie, and so all other things being equal you’ll go in with about a 50-50 chance of pulling Host and scoring the win.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

LOL SPARTZ SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

LOL SPARTZ SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: Ron Paul R TX

Yow! We’re guessing that Plasma Grenade is going to either feel really good or feel really bad. (We’re going with bad.) Everyone wave goodbye to Ron Paul R TX (no, not THAT one, okay?) who was kind enough to pose for our LOL Spartz Screenshots Of The Day. Click to enlarge!

We’re running an entire Comedy Week of laughs, lulz and ROFLs here on the Pillar Of Awesome.Got a funny screenshot of Epic Fail or overall Halo hilarity? Send it in! We’ll run ’em for the rest of the month or until we run out. Just shoot it over to haloreachdaily@live.com, or make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

FIRE WHEN READY

Gimme a G! Gimme an R! Gimme an I! Gimme an F! Gimme a BALL! Okay, on second thought, hang onto your balls. You might actually need them one day. We’ll just run another great Grifball pic instead and you’ll get the idea.

Credit for the screenshot to Loyal Rook. Thanks, Rook!

KILLAGRUNTJARO!

Despite its name, Killagruntjaro doesn’t actually require you to Jaro anything, though we will be going with Gruntpocalypse in Score Attack to wrap this in one Round rather than three. It shouldn’t be any problem to Magnum or DMR your way to 10 Multikills, since the Grunts go down with one shot, travel in packs, and maneuver with the agility of highway roadside accident. So, if you can’t manage 10 out of a single match, you’re just not trying, eh?

Um…what? Another one of these? Look, Bungie, we’re sorry we said that about your Mom, okay? Give us a break.

Anyway, our standard recommendations when it comes to L.D. Challenges: You’ll probably never do this alone, and if you can in fact handle a Legendary level solo without dying, you won’t need any advice from here. This one’s practically a Weekly Challenge, and while it’s not quite last week’s Mythic difficulty — LASO/SLASO requires virtually all Skulls on — it’s pretty damn close.

So, fair warning: if you’re tackling this, it will be out of inspiration for personal accomplishment or from a compulsive psychological defect to complete all the Challenges. The 5K bonus is in the penthouse of daily cR rewards, but since you’ve already played the campaign, you won’t earn much besides the Challenge award; and you could easily score that many cRedits playing Grifball for half an hour.

On the other hand, Winter Contingency offers wide-open geography that helps your front-line fighters skirt past most encounters, while giving weaker players the opportunity to *ahem* “guard the rear flank” and Checkpoint forward once the danger has passed. So, though it’s true this level remains more welcoming to solo excursions — as the Campaign’s first mission, it’s also by design the easiest — and the game scales up the difficulty for more players in co-op mode, you’ll still want the extra guns at your side; otherwise, it could be a very long day of level Reloads.

ONE NOTE: If you don’t make it through the level alive, you can’t just hit Restart; you’ll need to Save-And-Quit, then reopen the level. Otherwise, it’ll still read your progress as Challenge Failed.

All right then. We don’t have room here for a detailed walkthrough, so just as we did with the LASO Challenges we’ll turn the microphone over to the Mythic Master — the jacket-strapped lunatic who invented the SLASO runs, Tyrant himself — and his in-depth guide posted on Halo.Bungie.Org, where the HRD Challenge Report written by Associate Editor FoxmanFX appears each day.

Meanwhile, check out the Legendary Strategies link at the top of the page for tips and tactics on tackling Legendary levels regardless of which mission you’re in. And, since the Challenge requires zero deaths, you’ll also need to play even more defensively — stealthy when possible, and get-the-hell-out when necessary. If you think you’ve just done something that would make an awesome kick-ass clip for your File Share, you’re probably not doing this right.

Whew! Quite a lot to keep in mind. To help you out, here’s a video walkthrough — done SOLO, and with ALL skulls on too — that’s well worth the watch if you get frustrated. Credit to Cruel Legacey Productions for the gameplay and crazy accomplishment.

We prefer Rumble Pit on smaller, tighter maps: Wherever you can sneak up on someone, catch them by surprise as they come ’round a corner or make a straight Sprint toward their unsuspecting spines will offer all sorts of banzai backstab openings.

Although you can Sprint for a cheetah-like takedown, you can stalk just as easily with Active Camo if you don’t mind alerting your prey to nearby danger, since Camo-crouched near a doorway or corner for a lightning strike will make the Discovery Channel highlight reel as well.

Though it often goes hand-in-glove with Rumble Pit recommendations, avoid Multi-Team for this one: There’s just too much damn gunfire everywhere, and you could easily find yourself Yoinked — or worse, Showstopped — as the Assassination animation plays.

Finally, an excellent point from reader MAL, who in real life makes his living as a professional assassin:

Choosing a ‘Pro’ game in Matchmaking Rumble Pit, like Crazy King Pro or Slayer Pro, makes this extremely simple. The lack of radar will make it easy to sneak up on opponents and get multiple assassinations.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: rubberducky296

You know those cool shots from action movies where the hero walks in slo-mo toward the camera while a huge explosion goes batshit in the background? Yep, we’re suckers for those too. Screenshot Of The Day this morning courtesy of new friend-of-the-site rubberducky296, who gets props for his cinematic glory. Thanks, Ducky! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: Cursed Blood

Another assassination Challenge today, so we thought we’d show reader Cursed Blood catching some air for our Screenshot Of The Day. Nothing like a good backstab to start off a Saturday! Thanks, CB! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREEENSHOT OF THE DAY: dweeeeb

Ninja Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of dweeeeb, who’ll kick your blue ass if you don’t use all four e’s. Nice work, dweeeeb! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!